Review by Choice Review
From W.W. Buckland's legal exposition The Roman Law of Slavery (1908), through W.L. Westermann's comparative study The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity (1955), to Moses Finley's influential (especially in Europe) Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (CH, Jan'81), systematic treatises in English on slavery in the ancient Mediterranean world are not lacking. Harper (Oklahoma) offers a broad reconsideration of slavery from the beginnings of Roman economic and military recovery, c. 275 CE, to the era of the dissolution of Roman western provinces into new (Germanic) kingdoms. His discussion of late antique slavery as an integral aspect of the "honorable" (traditional Greco-Roman) society is richly documented and cogently argued. The author thoroughly reviews legal and economic aspects of late antique slavery and demonstrates the fundamental importance of slavery in maintaining the ancient economy. How did ancient slavery end? An older interpretation saw Roman slavery decline to be replaced by "feudalism" (compare the critique of Frank Walbank, The Awful Revolution, CH, Feb'70). Harper forcefully argues that ancient slavery does not demonstrate (in Marxian terms) a shift from one "mode of production" to another ("feudalism"). Rather, a complex sociolegal-economic system gradually collapsed to be, in time, replaced by simpler, largely agrarian-based, different politico-economic structures. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty. P. B. Harvey Jr. Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review